Sanders could run for Miles in Eagles offense

By Nick FierroOf The Morning Call

Thursday

May 16, 2019 at 9:00 PM

Running back from Penn State has a chance to have a big rookie season, given his abilities and the Birds' line.

PHILADELPHIA — In a well-calculated plan to improve their running game in 2019, the Philadelphia Eagles drafted their left tackle of the future in the first round and one of their running backs of the present in the second.

Penn State’s Miles Sanders, who emerged from the mighty long shadow left by Saquon Barkley to run for 1,274 yards last year in his only season as a starter, won’t get 220 attempts like he did in 2018. Coach Doug Pederson’s master plan to spread the football will limit his carries.

But as part of a crowded room that, for now, includes Jordan Howard, Wendell Smallwood, Corey Clement, Josh Adams, Boston Scott and Donnel Pumphrey, Sanders still should get a chance to contribute — just like he thought he would alongside Saquon Barkley at Penn State.

As it turned out, he had to wait until Barkley departed.

Now, in a stroke of irony, he’s wearing Barkley’s jersey No. 26, but probably only because his college No. of 24 is already taken by Howard.

No matter. The Eagles aren’t expecting Sanders to be Barkley, although the drop-off from Barkley in 2017 to Sanders in 2018 was barely noticeable in Happy Valley.

According to Pro Football Focus, Sanders’ 83.1 rushing grade last season was only one point lower than Barkley’s the year before. Because of that, and the quality of the offensive line he’ll be working with from this point, PFF ranks Sanders second in its preseason rookie of the year candidates behind No. 1 overall pick Kyler Murray of the Arizona Cardinals.

Sanders went to the Eagles at 53 — the same spot they used to obtain LeSean McCoy a decade earlier. McCoy went on to become the Eagles’ all-time leading rusher in just six seasons before being traded to Buffalo.

Last Friday, after his first practice at Eagles’ rookie camp, Sanders was able to exhale for the first time since the draft two weeks earlier. And it felt good.

“You’re just so eager to get on the field,” he said, “and now that I’ve got that first practice under my belt, I’m pretty clear on what the whole offense will be like. It’s going to be pretty different with the veterans coming (at OTAs), but tomorrow I should be better with what I’ve got to do, knowing what I’ve got to focus on and what the coaches are focusing on.”

The Eagles believe Sanders and Howard will complement each other perfectly.

Sanders agrees but is focused only on absorbing as much as he can for now, learning from intense running backs coach Duce Staley and continuing to work on returning kicks as he did at Penn State as a freshman in 2006.

“(Staley) was very hard on me,” Sanders said of his first practice. “He wants the best out of me.”

“This is a great opportunity for Miles, No. 1, to come in and really begin to understand our playbook and the terminology," coach Doug Pederson added. "The footwork may be different than what he’s used to. He’s obviously talented, and we’re excited to get him in here and going.

“Duce Staley is going to work with these guys every day like we’ve been doing in Phase 2. Once we get out of rookie camp next week, still finish up Phase 2 and we get our rookies in with us and get to spend more time with them next week. It will be valuable for them leading up to OTAs.”

When OTAs begin next week, Sanders will have the opening-week jitters behind him. Not that jitters are necessarily bad.

“It’s a surreal moment,” he said when rookie camp opened last Friday. "It ain’t really hit me until I got here and got my helmet. I was like, ‘Dang, I really got drafted to the Philadelphia Eagles.’ ”

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